A new report from VA OIG shows the Department of Veterans Affairs scheming against military sexual trauma survivors out of benefits, as if the trauma of rape is not enough.

IG chose this week to release a slew of damning reports calling into question policies implemented under former acting under secretary Thomas Murphy where the agency failed to appropriately assess military sexual trauma cases.

MST Coordinators did not make the required telephone call to the veteran, or VSRs did not use required language in the letter sent to the veteran to determine whether the veteran reported the claimed traumatic event in service and to obtain a copy of the report; and

IG issued six recommendations including reviewing 5,500 sexual trauma disability compensation cases from October 2016 to September 2017. This is not the first time VA was caught failing to follow its own protocol when assessing disabilities.

In 2015, with the invaluable help of AJ Lagoe at KARE 11 News, exposed that VA was failing to use qualified doctors to evaluate veterans seeking benefits for traumatic brain injury (TBI). A TBI is generally an invisible wound that can result in profound disabilities that require substantial amounts of financial support to accommodate.

Notice the pattern? Whenever “trauma” is expensive and invisible to observers, VA frequently misadjudicates the claims by failing to follow their own very obvious protocol.

For TBI, only some doctors are qualified to assess whether a TBI occurred. The policies are obvious, and the qualifications of a doctor are likewise obvious. Likewise, markers in sexual trauma cases indicating a stressing event like sexual trauma can also be obvious when properly assessing a veteran’s record.

By failing to follow VA’s own protocol, the agency withholds benefits and health care these veterans need after suffering an unspeakable trauma. Locating this issue is merely one step in cleaning up the agency’s mess over the past decade. If only the agency had a law to fire corrupt leaders responsible for this shameful violation?

Oh, wait, Trump can fire Tom Murphy and his henchmen, many of whom still work for VA, by implementing 38 USC § 714 removals, tomorrow. Think he will give Robert Wilkie a call?

IG provided the following summary contained below in italics. I encourage all of you to review the full report:

Some service members are reluctant to submit a report of MST, particularly when the perpetrator is a superior officer. Victims may have concerns about the potential for negative performance reports or punishment for collateral misconduct. There is also sometimes the perception of an unresponsive military chain of command. If the MST leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, it is often difficult for victims to produce evidence to support the occurrence of the assault. VBA policy, therefore, requires staff to follow additional steps for processing MST-related claims so veterans have additional opportunities to provide adequate evidence.

Based on its sample, the OIG estimated that VBA staff incorrectly processed about 1,300 of the 2,700 MST-related claims denied during the review period April 2017 through September 2017. This may have resulted in the denial of benefits to veterans who could have been entitled to receive them.

The OIG determined multiple factors led to the improper processing and denial of MST-related claims, including lack of reviewers’ specialization and no additional level of review, discontinued special focus reviews, and inadequate training.

The OIG made six recommendations to the Under Secretary for Benefits including that VBA review all approximately 5,500 MST-related claims denied from October 2016 through September 2017, take corrective action on those claims in which VBA staff did not follow all required steps, assign MST-related claims to a specialized group of claims processors, and improve oversight and training on addressing MST-related claims.

Conclusion

So, at least 1,300 veterans are believed to have been impacted by the agency’s failure to fairly adjudicate MST claims. How many veterans are suffering from the impacts of sexual trauma without the financial and mental health support they deserve?

ABOUT FOUNDER
Benjamin Krause is a lawyer, investigative reporter and award-winning veterans advocate. He is author of the guide Voc Rehab Survival Guide for Veterans and chief editor of DisabledVeterans.org.
He received his Bachelors from Northwestern University and Law Degree from the University of Minnesota, both using VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment.
He is also featured regularly in national publications as an authority on Department of Veterans Affairs policy such as Bloomberg News, Foreign Policy Magazine, Washington Times, Fox News, CBS, NBC, Star Tribune and more.
_____________________________________________________________

21 COMMENTS

What is new? The VA fails to follow protocol on almost every compensable claim that is not an, “I’m missing a leg.” type of claim with a military hospital operation record of removal. In other words, only approving grudgingly the least level of the obvious.

And then, when they do grant your claim, they lowball you as much as they think they can get away with. I had to file NOD and CUE because they granted me my Award based on the most serious symptoms. That symptom is onlynlisted in the higher brackets. And their reasons and basis letter told me I would rate the higher amounts if I had those other symptoms too….including the one they said granted me the lower amount! How can a higher level symptom qualify my lower rating, but not the higher one that they said would????

My PTSD is related to a form of MST due to personal assault under extreme harassment. The quack I saw, after having been diagnosed with PTSD for the last 11 years, informed me, after 20 minutes that I don’t have PTSD. The exam records are honestly an abortion. Things I said never made it in. Other things I said where completely twisted around. In short. I was Personality Disorder’ed all over again. This bullshit is still going on to this day. All in the name of saving a buck. The fat fuck who did my exam probably never even served.

Have you shot a government psychologist in the face today? Because believe you me I’d love to shoot Dr. John Alden Anderson right in his fucking face. Find out where he lives. Walk on up to his door. Knock. Wait for the open and BANG BANG BANG BANG. Maybe a gut shot first for incapacitation purposes so that way I can have some fun with this fat fuck before he goes. I wonder if he’s married because I could be fun for the whole fucking family.

Evidence? Only if it benefits these self-serving fucks, not Veterans. The VA will also bastardize these “New Findings” and USE IT to go to congress and ask for more $$$$ and nothing will be heard of it until they again, go empty hats in-hand, asking Isaacson; “More Please, Sir?!!”

I, too – – – will probably be laughing my ass off for the rest of the day, as I finish battening down the hatches due approaching CAT 5 hurricane Lane. Seems odd that my last weekend in the islands before flying off to Parts Unknown should be blessed by a hurricane. Was hoping for fair weather.

MST is a topic I understand well. So is overt sexism. I understand as an American what America considers right and wrong. Rape survivors have a godamn tough mother effing time from the moment they are penetrated until they die unless they can get treatment by compassionate and trained people free of gross bigotry and certainly free from sexual harassment.

Below I have pasted a copied section of a medical record entry into my medical record that appeared yesterday. I noticed after my liver biopsy that my VA shrink had resigned out of ethical concerns a few months back after also blistering VA leadership for assigning my care to the romper room walk in clinic rather than care at a clinic for a man once diagnosed by VA with a GAF of 5. When I called and demanded another be assigned because I was out of meds and now needed help more than ever I was simoly told by the Acting Chief of Staff fir mental health, “I am working on it.”

Here is what the acting Chief of Staff of mental health, a social worker named Jamie Marshal (a female) entered into my record;

“Have communicated with staff in Mental Health and Primary Care and it has been determined that veteran will be assigned to male clinicians as this has worked well in primary care and with his previous psychiatrist.

Dr. (Tweedle Dee, a non-prescribing Phd used for walk ins and such) will be his primary therapist and appointments will be held at the HCC in conjunction with PCMHI therapist (Tweedle Dum). Currently we do not have a psychiatrist or psychiatric medication prescriber that is male on site in Eugene so a consult has been placed for community care for a male provider. We are working with Primary Care and PCMHI CPS to ensure that there is no disruption in medications until vet can establish care with a male psychiatric medication prescriber in the community.” … “Vet has been asked by this author to focus on the present and getting access to the services he has requested – therapy and medications as well as support for his recent diagnosis that he is reporting of liver cancer.”

This was the first I had EVER heard of any sort of sexual preference or allegation of ANY kind! This is VA to the core. God help MST patients who wander into this pit of sexist vipers.

Yep, exactly one business day after getting the biopsy report confirming my liver cancer the Chief of Staff for mental health in Eugene and Roseburg (a social worker by license) decided to terminate mental health care because she decided I needed to go find a man somewhere else to help me but in no case would she allow a VA female to provide service.

It took Washington DC, 3 business days to force them to assign me (gasp) to one of the many available female doctors. This is the fourth time since December that DC has forced Roseburg to continue services denied and the third time as an assigned case of retaliation by the Senior Staff (DBC).
The corruption is rampant. I must say though that at case number three the note DC sent back went from “expect a reolution in 14 business days” to “expect a resolution in 2-3 business days.” and DC has kept their word. I have been assigned now to a two man (or woman?) rapid response team in DC just to handle Roseburg’s ongoing war against me and Roseburg has been declared hostile towards this patient.

The whole godamn VA is hostile toward EVERY patient. My God, a social worker to oversee mental health??? WTF?

It’s complete insanity. It is literally the inmates running the asylum. I have experienced something similar recently with my C&P examiner. A complete and total distortion and misrepresentation of the facts and truth. I suspect all to save a buck. They have to know that a social worker is not well equipped with nearly enough tools and training to handle complex cases involving trauma and mental health. I mean look at Albert Wong. The problem is if you don’t have a physical wound that you can point to and can clearly be seen to be disabling your fucked no ifs ands or buts about it. We walk around with invisible head wounds that have been left untreated for decades. And then they wonder why we snap. They say things like “how could this happen?” and “thoughts and prayers”

My thinking on the matter follows this logic. We need another revolution. We need to make things clean and pure again. New rules need to be laid down as foundation with harsh penalties for violation. These rules need to be explained in such a way as to avoid any confusion as to what is expected. Examples of current administration officials need to be made to show the rank and file what is and what is not acceptable behavior from a federal employee.

“WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs wrongly denies benefits to thousands of veterans claiming they suffer from military sexual trauma, potentially causing stress and psychological harm, a government watchdog reported Tuesday.”

“The VA denied 5,500 of 12,000 claims submitted in fiscal year 2017 by veterans who said they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder related to a sexual assault that occurred during their military service.”

“According to findings released by the VA Office of Inspector General, 1,300 claims denied during a five-month period last year were rejected without due diligence by the VA. In 740 of those cases, the VA incorrectly denied claims before requesting a medical examination.”

“The review team found that staff did not follow required procedures for processing these claims, which potentially resulted in undue stress to veterans,” the report states. “[A] mental health provider reported that veterans are confused and upset when [the VA] denies their claims, and this undue stress can interfere with the treatment process.”

“The findings come despite VA rules implemented in 2011 that were supposed to ease requirements and afford liberal consideration to claims related to military sexual trauma. Often, evidence is difficult to find for sexual assaults in the military because many of them are not reported, and victims don’t seek immediate medical care, the IG said.”

“Inspectors blamed the incorrect denials on flawed, inadequate training for veterans service representatives, who comb through veterans’ records for signs of sexual trauma and make decisions about their claims.”

“Claims for military sexual trauma used to be handled by VA representatives with specialized training. In addition, VA teams that oversee how claims are handled were required to review those types of claims and make suggestions for improvements. By 2016, that ended.”

“Now, representatives who “do not have the experience or expertise” to process claims for sexual trauma are tasked with doing so, the IG reported. Military sexual trauma claims are also no longer subject to special or additional reviews.”

“In one case reviewed by inspectors, a veteran told the VA that she was sexually assaulted during her military service and became pregnant as a result. Her military treatment records showed she was treated for pregnancy and gave birth, all consistent with the timeline of the alleged assault. A VA medical examiner supported her story, but a veterans service representative denied her claim because of “vague language” used by the examiner.”

“In other instances, veterans service representatives overlooked evidence of possible stressors that could help prove sexual trauma. One veteran’s medical file showed significant weight gain after his alleged sexual assault. Another veteran’s job performance declined following her assault. Both claims were denied without follow up.”

“One veteran told the VA that he received psychiatric treatment at private hospitals because of his military sexual trauma. The VA denied his claim without attempting to obtain his medical records.”

“In other examples provided by inspectors, veterans were denied benefits before the VA contacted them by phone or sent letters requesting information about their alleged assaults.”

“Veterans who were previously denied benefits might be less likely to keep trying to obtain help, the IG said.”

“One veteran wrote about the process, describing nausea and vomiting for several days surrounding any time they had to discuss the [military sexual trauma] event with mental health providers or examiners,” the report reads. “The review team concluded that the trauma of restating or reliving stressful events could cause psychological harm to victims and prevent them from pursuing their claims.”

“Based on the findings, the inspector general asked the VA to review the thousands of claims that it denied in fiscal year 2017 and correct any mistakes. The VA agreed. The agency estimated it would complete the review by Sept. 30, 2019.”

“The IG also recommended the VA improve its training and create a specialized group to handle claims related to military sexual trauma.”

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Here’s the comment section! Make of them what you will!

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3687932413 hours ago The VA has a tough job with this because so many women make false accusations against men so they can claim PTSD and for other selfish reasons. All while the men they accuse get put through the ringer and even when they are found innocent, their careers were already set back.

366558603687932412 hours ago Or some men are actually pervs who sexually harass junior personnel by telling them to show them their breasts while ejaculating in office spaces in order to get qualifications signed. Or forcefully raping them when they told them no to sexual advances. Or, when on liberty ports, when everyone is drinking, stick their fingers in other people’s private area and in all of the above instances tell them, if they say anything to anyone, they would ruin their career.

Many people do not want to believe the travesties some people had to endure while in uniforms, but seeing those people everyday or like images of those people who did that to you does cause triggers making it unable to function in normal circumstances. So, it’s not just the ’so call innocent‘ whose careers are ruined. People’s lives are affected forever.

36879324366558603 hours ago Yes Captain Obvious. There are real sexual assaults, but there is a reason every time the military gives you the mind-boggling number of sexual assaults, they carefully word it “sexual assaults reported”. They throw that word ”reported” on there because it inflates the numbers even though thr large majority of them were false reports. One ship in which I was the SAPR for, that year there were six reported sexual assaults by women. All six ended up being false accusations. I’m sorry you feel triggered, but this is the reality we live in.

Richard Oconnor18 hours ago PTDS for sex, get over it. you can fight back on sex charges,
you don’t have to endure it over and over.

Casey Elliott Richard Oconnor17 hours ago They will attack you for this comment. I just see more people trying to get a check, however. Terrible that it happens.

Who decided those 6 claims were false? The accusers? Did they recant or admit to lying? Or were claims found baseless due to no evidence or verifiable witnesses?
This here is exactly why most go on reported…most often there is little to no evidence at all. Which is why they look for makers…changes in the service members habits and performance.

Welcome to America where the people are so fat, stupid, lazy, arrogant and entitled. Their self centeredness sucks in other more deserving life forms oxygen so hard that they make black holes jealous.

Trump is not a vet nor a combat vet. He will never give a fuck about us or our kind. The people will never fucking care as long as they can still look out for #1 or warm the hearth with someone else’s money.

This nation does not deserve the brave men and women who suffer in uniform for it. It’s a nation of cowards and babies. I want my mommas titty, I want my milk and cookies, I wanna go home wah wah wah.

It took me 30 seconds to get banned from twatter after my first and only tweet sent to potus, news stations, sec of VA and benefits. It stated: how long must a combat veteran fight for the care and benefits earned in battle only to have it taken away at every opportunity?

Sorry, your account has been locked. Now get fucked. No, you get fucked and kiss my ass cocksuckers. Fuck this place I’d rather be on the moon without a helmet.

Now if you will excuse the shit out of me I am going to nurse this hangover by hanging up pictures of fast food and pizza and closing my eyes and thinking real hard about how it tastes. Then I’m going to drink more cigarettes and smoke more bourbon and beer and hope one of the three removes me from this miserable sorry ass ungrateful nation of halfwits, pedophiles and criminals.

Anger and contempt doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings and loathing I have for the corrupt fedgov. I wonder if there will be an attempt at Martial Law when the inevitable impeachment begins. There may very well have to be.

Keeping with the theme of military sexual trauma (MST), specifically related to how the United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) addresses the topic, a number of questions arise regarding the treatment aspect of this matter. Before these questions are posed it is important to provide some background related to MST and who it impacts, because common stereotypes misrepresent objective data and this in turn influences VA policy and resulting action.

It is crucial to define what MST is in order to better understand this issue. Per the United States Department of Defense (DoD; 2017) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, the DoD does not use the term MST, as only the VA utilizes this phrase “to refer to experiences of sexual assault or repeated, threatening acts of sexual harassment throughout the course of one’s military career.”

More specifically, “MST includes any sexual activity where a Servicemember is involved against his or her will – he or she may have been pressured into sexual activities (for example, with threats of negative consequences for refusing to be sexually cooperative or with implied better treatment in exchange for sex), may have been unable to consent to sexual activities (for example, when intoxicated), or may have been physically forced into sexual activities. Other experiences that fall into the category of MST include:
• Unwanted sexual touching or grabbing
• Threatening, offensive remarks about a person’s body or sexual activities
• Threatening and unwelcome sexual advances” (VA, 2018)

For the sake of example, to demonstrate how common the VA’s standard of MST occurs, consider Marine Corps boot camp. In a platoon of 100 male recruits, drill instructors referring to mouths as “cock holsters,” hands as “dick skinners,” injured personnel as “broke” or “limp dicks,” under-performers as “pussies,” and similar derogatory or “offensive remarks about a person’s body” have effectively exposed 100 individuals to MST situations. It is therefore understood that MST does not relate solely to rape or sexual assault; it also relates to harassment and offensive remarks.

Rape is defined as “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim” (United States Department of Justice, 2012). How do rape and sexual assault differ? Per Rymel (2004), “Rape’ has traditionally been defined as ‘the forced penetration of a woman by a male assailant.’ Most State laws, however, have abandoned this narrow definition of a sex offense in favor of the more gender-neutral and broader term ‘sexual assault.’ This refers to ‘any genital, oral, or anal penetration by a part of the perpetrator’s body or by an object, using force or without the victim’s consent.”

It is important to keep in mind that unwanted touching, kissing, grouping, and fondling without expressed consent may satisfy the legal definition of sexual assault (Sexual assault, n.d.). To illustrate how frequently occurring sexual assault is, consider a hypothetical junior service member who accidentally brushes up against the reproductive region of an individual in a bar or the nervous person who without expressed consent initiates kissing activity on a first date. The elements concerning an expansive defining standard of sexual assault and inclusion of harassment related to MST create a violation-rich environment in which it becomes difficult to imagine who has not experienced MST at least once during military service.

Definitions aside, what does academic literature state about MST?

According to Roberts (2012), “The most common type of [trauma] exposure for men is war-related, whereas for women, it is rape or assault” (p. 558). While this assertion may seem true on its face, it does not fully account for the notion that male rape is largely understudied (Voelkel, Pukay-Martin, Walter, & Chard, 2015; Blais et al., 2017), and underreported, undercounted, and underrepresented (Stemple & Meyer, 2014). The literature concerning sexual assault and rape is lacking, and assumptions regarding the traumatization of males are skewed. Nonetheless, the National Defense Research Institute (2014) reported that 43% of women and 35% of men in the military experienced a penetrative sexual assault; staggeringly similar rates.

The United States Department of Defense (2018) verifies that 5,277 service members reported sexual assault in fiscal year 2017 (FY17) unrelated to preservice experience, down from the estimated figure of 34,000 in 2006. For FY17, the DoD completed investigations where 832 (18%) of assessed males reported having experienced sexual assault, 3,512 (78%) males were subject of investigation, 3,744 (81%) females experienced sexual assault, and 146 (3%) females were subject of investigation (United States Department of Defense, 2018a). At first glance it appears as though females are disproportionally represented as victims/survivors of MST.

It is important to note that the aforementioned figures were obtained from official investigation into criminal wrongdoing and not as a means of assessing the number of sex and gender-specific sexual assaults unrelated to exact criminal proceedings, a phenomenon also occurring in non-military statistical data (Stemple & Meyer, 2014). According to the National Defense Research Institute (2014), an estimated 1% of active duty men and 4.9% of active duty women were sexually assaulted in 2013. Of this, McGraw (2017) states, “Extrapolating these rates to the full force suggests that an estimated 10,600 servicemen and 9,600 servicewomen experienced a penetrating or contact sexual crime in the year prior to being surveyed.”

This suggests that more men than women experience sexual assault in the military.

Conversely, Millegan, Wang, LeardMann, Miletich, and Street (2016) reported that 6% of female and 1% of male service members reported unwanted sexual contact in 2012, though add, “Although a larger percentage of female service members are victims of sexual trauma, the absolute number of men and women experiencing sexual trauma is similar due to the much larger percentage of men in the military” (pp. 132-133). Of this, the DoD reported that during 2012, there were 202,876 females and 1,185,152 males on active duty service (United States Department of Defense, 2013). This means that during 2012, approximately 12,173 females and 11,852 males reported unwanted sexual contact that year, a difference of only 321 individuals—hardly an inconsequential figure when considering the thousands of people affected by the largely underreported crime.

These findings suggest that male military service personnel experience MST either greater than or equal to that of their female counterparts.

Comparative with statistics on a national level, Smith and colleagues (2018) report 43.6% of women and 24.8% of men in the U.S. experience some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetimes. Challenging oft underrepresented male sexual assault statistics, Stemple and Meyer (2014) estimated an almost nine-fold increase in male sexual victimization when adjusting for incarcerated populations. The authors also criticize metrics used to assess sexual assault among the U.S. population as relating to that of household origin (Stemple & Meyer, 2014), excluding instances of sexual assault that occur outside of this setting, such as that within the military.

On a national scale, the manner by which sexual assault is considered, assessed, and researched remains biased, because the overwhelming number of male sexual assault victims/survivors related to incarcerated and military populations is often excluded from statistical data.

The DoD has maintained, “Various scientific surveys of the military population indicate that while women are at higher risk for sexual assault, greater numbers of men experience some kind of sexual assault each year than do women” (United States Department of Defense, 2016, p. 5). Expounding upon the issue of sexual assault involving men is a necessary step towards addressing the topic of military-related PTSD, because statistical underrepresentation of this group could directly impact funding attributed to sexual assault (United States Department of Health & Human Services).

Currently, in an effort to provide equitable treatment regarding the sex/gender of all veterans, the VA offers gender-specific health care in relation to female veterans which male veterans do not receive (United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012)—treatment which is informed by distorted information (Williams, 2017) that conflicts with the DoD data (United States Department of Defense, 2016).

While not an exhaustive review of the literature pertaining to MST, a cursory glance at whom within the veteran population is likely to have been most impacted raises a number of relevant questions.

First, given how the VA’s definition of MST applies to arguably most veterans, as an “offensive remark” may constitute MST, how is it that the Agency could ever deny an individual claim for this condition?

Second, why are there VA gender-specific programs available to females and not males (i.e., VA Center for Women Veterans, The Office of Women’s Health Services, etc.), some with a specific focus on MST?

Third, why is there VA funding attributed to the aforementioned female target population while negligently excluding male-centric alternatives or equivalents?

Fourth, gynocentric sexism is not allowed on a federal level where employment is concerned; therefore, why is it permitted to exist on a federal level in places of federal employment (e.g., the VA)?

Fifth, if ten people rate the diagnosis of PTSD, what logical sense does it make to set aside specialty services for only four out of ten of them—a relatable example highlighting the disparity in representation of MST data regarding females and males?

Sixth, when addressing the VA’s recent MST scandal one media source stated, “This is why women commit suicide, this is why women are homeless, this is why women don’t get help” (Slack, 2018). As effectively highlighted throughout the current post, men experience MST at equal-to-higher rates than women; therefore, why is it members within our society push the female-specific narrative in order to garner attention concerning sexual assault? Is it somehow less important when men are victimized?

Lastly, how many of the 49% of MST claims mishandled by the VA and contained in the VA Office of Inspector General report were men; how many were denied specifically due to the stereotype regarding men and sexual assault within society; and when will the VA finally stop treating men as less-than where this matter is concerned?

National Defense Research Institute. (2014). Sexual assault and sexual harassment in the U.S. military: Top-line estimates for active-duty service members from the 2014 RAND military workplace study. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.

MST is a terrible event…However all it takes is an allegation by someone and the accused is GUILTY until proven innocent. If the allegation is proven false the accused is still considered guilty and their career is toast.

There is never an error at the VA.
These are “acting” Professionals with the highest degrees, experience, and accreditation.
So this means this is not mis-management.

Phoenix is undergoing a spike in rapes to historical levels un-reported by the USA Today Journalists and their local newspaper, the Arizona Republic.

What chance do you think you are going to get with this issue?

Here in the State of Arizona the Victim receives this in writing:

a. Victims have a right to receive a forensic examination and have evidence collected, even if they do not want to participate in the criminal justice process.
b. Medical facilities will perform an examination to any person stating they have been assaulted within the previous 120 hours.
c. Victims cannot be billed for the examination and evidence collection. A.R.S. § 13- 1414 requires the county to pay for all sexual assault examinations.

“Law enforcement agencies should work with a multi-disciplinary team including victim advocates, crime laboratory personnel and prosecutors to establish a system of accountability to follow up on CODIS hits. Victim notification and engagement should be done with care and sensitivity using a trauma-informed approach. Depending how much time has passed since the assault, a victim may be in a very different stage of life and may not have disclosed past events to the people currently in her or his life. Law enforcement agencies should establish a victim notification protocol for informing victims of the status of their sexual assault cases and notifying them of the results of the laboratory testing.”